Our Fitness Blog

How to Fast Track Your Weight Loss

Most of us start a fitness routine in order to lose weight and push ourselves to work harder to quickly achieve our goals. However, it may be best for us to forget about that extreme diet and over the top fitness routine. Many studies show that this may not be the most effective way to reach our goals. In fact, most of these studies have found that you will most likely succeed in your fitness routine if you take baby steps and not giant leaps. You will get more noticeable results that tend to last longer, and at the same time, this gradual increase in your workout routine will lower your risk of injury. It can be hard in the beginning of any fitness routine trying to decide the best and quickest way to get the results that you want. Here are a few tips that we have compiled for you to help you safely fast track your fitness routine.

Proceed at a gradual and consistent pace

You do not need to start your fitness routine by running a marathon. You want to build up to it. You need to condition your body first. It does not matter how many reps you do, how much weight you can lift or how long your fitness routine lasts. All you need to do is keep challenging your body, and when your fitness routine is not that challenging take the time to build onto it. Your fitness routine needs to keep progressing in order for you to achieve results. According to a study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, participants who made one small, permanent change in their food choices or physical activity each week, such as consuming one less cup of soda or jogging 2 more laps a day actually lost more than twice as much belly fat, an extra 2½ inches off their waistlines, and about 4 times more weight during a 4-month program, when compared with those who stuck to the traditional calorie-restriction and physical-activity guidelines. (Huffington Post).

Follow the one mile rule

Most Americans love their car. It is our preferred form of transportation. Most of us use our cars everyday. Did you know that Americans use their cars for two-thirds of all trips that are less than one mile and 89% of all car trips range between one to two miles? We could easily get in some extra workout time if we put away the car for the shorter trips and walk or jog. Did you know that each additional hour you spend driving is associated with a 6% increase in obesity? This can have a huge effect on our fitness routines, especially when we add up all the time we spend in our cars. You can shed some extra fat by following the one mile rule, which states that if your trip is less than one mile away, you will walk instead of drive, or you could park where you can go to several places within a mile instead of moving your car each time. If you find the time to walk every day, by the next year you will lose around thirteen to seventeen pounds.

Get enough shut eye

With our hectic schedules, many of us find ourselves burning the midnight oil. This can have an adverse effect on our weight loss goals. We need to set aside the appropriate amount of time to sleep. If you make it a point to go to bed earlier then you should begin to see weight loss within a week. A study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania found that just a few nights of sleep deprivation can cause you to almost immediately gain weight. The study called for the participants to sleep about ten hours a night for the first two days, followed by five nights of sleep deprivation. They were then given four nights to recover. At the end of the eleven days, the sleep-deprived group had gained almost three pounds more than the well-rested control group. Sleeping is an important part of our daily routines. It is needed to help our bodies rest and recover from not only physical demands of our day but also the mental and emotional demands of our day, so it would be beneficial for you to set up the time needed to get the recommended amount of sleep per day.

It can be hard to stick to a fitness routine long enough to see the benefits and results of it. We may start our routines with a full speed ahead type of attitude but more often than not we become discouraged. We begin to think that we will never be able to achieve our weight loss goals. However, if we look at the smaller picture we would be able to take pride in our progress and see that we are headed in the right direction. Lesley Lutes, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at East Carolina University states that "when you focus on a few small changes at a time, you start to form some healthy habits that will last for a lifetime, rather than trying an all-or-nothing approach that more often than not fails because it is too hard to follow." So, start out small and focus on the little things, and you may just be surprised when you surpass your fitness goals.